1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a serial printer, an inkjet serial printer, and a serial printer with a facsimile function, and more particularly to the aforementioned serial printers that execute a process to prevent images from being printed on a platen of the printer.
2. Description of Related Art
In conventional serial printers, printing is performed regardless of whether a print medium is present over the platen, resulting in wasteful ink consumption. If ink or another printing material is left deposited on the platen, this ink may become deposited on subsequently conveyed print media, soiling the underside hereof. A printing device was proposed in Japanese examined patent-application publication (kokoku) No. HEI-7-108593 to resolve this problem. In this printing device, a sensor is provided on the print head for detecting the print medium. The sensor detects the existence of the print medium prior to the printing operation, and the printing device only executes the printing operation when paper is present.